18F Website Redesign

The problem

The site had fallen out of sync with who we were and how we worked. 18F needed its public presence to reflect its actual offerings and role in building agency capacity—not outdated descriptions of what we used to be.

Context & constraints

I held dual leadership roles—Head of Design and Strategic Communications Director—while the team remained heavily committed to client work. Rather than pause delivery, I pursued incremental improvements using existing bandwidth between projects.

Approach

The strategy sequenced work deliberately:

1. Content clarity first — Refining messaging about 18F’s mission and role
2. Structural updates — Reorganizing information architecture around how agencies actually sought our help
3. Visual and platform modernization — Updating design standards and technical infrastructure

Work was divided into discrete, manageable pieces assigned to designers between client engagements. Short review cycles allowed continuous calibration without disrupting agency commitments.

Outcomes

The redesigned site repositioned 18F as a capacity-building organization rather than a consultancy, surfacing service offerings and documented practices that had been buried or absent.

Post-launch, I implemented a publishing framework encouraging staff transparency. This generated increased traffic, higher content output, and renewed stakeholder interest.

Much of the public record of 18F’s work after the office closed traces back to this effort—the documentation practices and content frameworks established during this redesign.

Key insight

The redesign’s impact derived not from visual sophistication but from disciplined execution: strategic alignment, cross-functional coordination, and design leadership addressing business fundamentals at a critical organizational moment.

What this demonstrates

I can lead organizational communications strategy while managing design operations. I know how to sequence work incrementally when resources are constrained, and I understand that website redesigns are fundamentally about aligning public identity with organizational reality.